


what happens in the shower stays in the shower

by lokh



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 01:14:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3917695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lokh/pseuds/lokh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>tanaka and tsukki sing when they shower. sometimes they sing duets. sometimes theyre singing the dulcet tones of the symphonies of hedonistic pleasure (but not together). sometimes they realize that it is a bit weird to do all these things without even knowing who the other person <em>is</em>. what else do you need to know</p>
            </blockquote>





	what happens in the shower stays in the shower

**Author's Note:**

> “So we’ve never met but our showers are on opposite sides of the same apartment wall so sometimes we’re showering at the same time and we sing duets.” AU. Also; “sometimes we’re showering at the same time and I can hear you moaning” [[x]](http://lokh.tumblr.com/post/118015621970/awful-aus-ciaoloueh-awful-aus-so-weve)
> 
> japanese lyrics for this chapter from [here](http://bobcatmoran.tumblr.com/post/54639245382/abc-cafe-red-and-black-translation)

Since moving out by yourself, you’ve taken to having long showers.

Well, not _exactly_ by yourself. With your meagre earnings, such a feat would be torturous, if not nigh-miraculous, and if not with Yamaguchi, you just might have succumbed to your brother’s pleading to live together.

(You don’t see why he insisted – you’re at least 99.9% sure that he has a girlfriend that is more than capable of providing for them both.)

Despite no longer owning a traditional bath, your terrible bathing habits still persist. Yamaguchi has memorized them, even, if only because they’ve proved a huge blight on his life. (On more than one occasion have you made him, in his own words, ‘super fucking late’, and each time, his ‘sorry, Tsukki’ becomes less and less sincere. You don’t blame him.)

  1.        Your showers last at least 30 minutes.
  2.        Your showers consist of at least 80% hot water.
  3.        At full blast.



That last one has been contested – it’s mostly a matter of getting rid of habit now. Even you know that it’s just not economical (and it’s not at all because Yamaguchi once said to you, face completely blank, ‘is this what the dinosaurs died for?’). Yamaguchi has suggested it be replaced with the following:

  1.        Tsukki cannot take a shower shorter than 20 minutes without singing loud enough for the whole neighbourhood to hear him, and if he’s still singing after 20 minutes, it’s probably because he’s going through the entire first act of the musical.



(Yamaguchi’s words, not yours. Shut up, Yamaguchi.)

(You haven’t even _watched_ a lot of musicals.)

(In person, anyway.)

The _point_ is, you take really long showers. Back when you were still using the bath, time wasn’t exactly an issue. That has since changed. Contrary to popular belief, you are under no illusions about your singing ability, and don’t fancy that fact changing at all. No, your singing _does_ , in fact, have a practical purpose: keeping _time._

(Yamaguchi would argue that you can’t do that very well either, which, shut _up_ , Yamaguchi.)

The idea was that you should finish your shower by the time two or so songs are up; less than fifteen minutes, essentially. That was the idea at the start, anyway. Possibly, the whole thing would’ve worked a lot better if you chose songs that were shorter and also didn’t lead to other songs. But you can’t _help_ what kinds of songs you listen to. If your music doesn’t go on forever, then it doesn’t have lyrics _at all_. You’d rather not get caught failing to beatbox to EDM.

(“But you’re okay getting caught singing completely off-key?”

You’re not even going to _dignify_ that with an answer.)

Regardless, if Yamaguchi doesn’t want you to run up the bill, he’ll have to deal with your singing for the foreseeable future. You’re not going to lie; your showers are just about the only times you can ever _truly_ relax (short of being completely unconscious). Just knowing you’re coming home to a hot shower and relative quiet and solitude calms you down and stops you from completely going off the rails at a customer. If you’re gonna sing, which is just about the most vulnerable and ridiculous thing you can do, you’re gonna do it in the shower.

You also make it a point to alternate musicals every week.

This week, it’s _Les Mis_.

“Have you asked of yourselves, what’s the price you might pay…”

The water hitting the tiles sound like white noise to you now. In the past, you’d get carried away thinking in the shower and just made yourself more and more stressed. Now, you leave that to the few minutes before you go to sleep. Showering is a meditative practice as much as it is a hygienic ritual for you, at this point. You hum the rest of the verse as you wash your hair.

“Red; the blood of angry men! Black; the dark of ages past! Re-“

“Hey!”

The wall thumps. Your heart definitely does _not_ , just like how you didn’t sing the rest of that word about two octaves higher (though some would argue that there wouldn’t have been a difference). You hold your breath. Was that one of the neighbours from next door? You’ve never talked to them before. If your suspicions are correct, and one of your neighbours _is_ that delinquent-looking fellow that sometimes wrestles with the door, then it’s highly likely that you won’t be talking to them in the near future.

Assuming that the one that just hit the wall wasn’t, in fact, that same delinquent.

(Oh, god, what if you have to _fight_ them? Will you have enough time to put a towel on before going at it? What if you’re forced to fight them _naked_? Will you _win?_ )

(A voice in your head that sounds an awful lot like Yamaguchi tells you that if you could just keep your mouth shut and not _bicker_ with them, _maybe_ you wouldn’t have to do something so ridiculous as to fight them. Which is rich, considering that _he’s_ the one that went off at you about maintaining pride.)

(Drat, they can still hear the water running. There’s no point keeping quiet.)

(Is the water twice as loud as usual or is that just you?)

“Hey! You still there?”

Against your better judgement, you respond, “yeah?”

“Was that song from _Les Mis_?”

For a moment, you stare at the bathroom wall like it’ll become transparent and the secrets of the world will be bared to you. Maybe they’re _not_ the delinquent.

“…yes? Why?”

“I just guessed, because I don’t know the English lyrics, but that’s the _ABC Café_ , right?”

“Yes,” you say, stomach no longer plunging to the floor and pulse no longer to the sky, and it’ll occur to you later that you are, in fact, holding a conversation through a wall during a shower.

“Dude, do you know the Japanese lyrics?! I can do Marius’ part!”

Delinquent or not, you don’t recall _any_ of your neighbours singing.

(It occurs to you that they are probably _also_ taking a shower. Wilfully, you ignore this.)

Maybe it’s because the water is hotter than usual (which Yamaguchi may get on your case for later), or you’ve been standing under the water for too long. This entire...  _thing_ doesn't feel quite as weird as it logically should be. For one, you're buck-naked (which is what you'd expect in a shower, which brings you to your second point; two, you're  _showering_ ; three, this stranger is presumably in the same state, and; four, they _want to sing a duet_. You don't even know who they _are_ (but apparently, they've seen _Les Mis_ ). On the _other_ hand, would knowing them make you more likely to sing with them? No, you think. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Suddenly, singing is a _great_ idea. The only reason, clearly, is that if you sing the _whole_ thing, you can shower for longer than usual. (The reason that this is a viable outcome at all is probably a result of the hot water as well). In lieu of a response, you sing, “ _ima ga ketsudan wo suru toki ga…_ ”

You’re not sure what you expected when they started singing. Not _professional_ quality singing, of course. Maybe just decent enough that the bathroom acoustics twice over would warp it into something tolerable. You didn’t expect... well.

Something that sounded just as bad as _you_.

(You are _fully aware_ of your own weaknesses, _thank you, Yamaguchi._ )

“ _Kimi ga soko ni iawasetara, boku no kono omoi ga wakaru darou…_ ”

Every line is sung way too dramatically (which is... _something_ , given the subject matter), their voice breaking on high notes (which don't actually exist in the song). You really want to laugh at them, but well, your part is coming up, and you aren't much better.

(Well, at least their timing is pretty good.)

(They’re also _really loud_.)

You are decidedly less embarrassed about this entire ordeal. You might even – dare you say it? – be _having fun_. If you sing with a bit more gusto than you usually do, well. No one has to know except a complete stranger. (And possibly Yamaguchi, but you trust him with at least this much.)

"Oh, shit, alright, just give me a second," they break off, suddenly, in the middle of a verse, and for a split second you wonder what you've done (though it'd be hilarious if it had actually been Marius singing that). They're quiet, and you think you can hear muffled yelling and knocking. Then there's the squeak of tile and what sounds like shampoo bottles clattering to the floor. "Alright! I'm getting out!"

Then, presumably to you, "sorry, dude! Gotta go! That was fun though!"

The sound of water halts with the squeal of a tap, leaving only the now jarring sounds of your own shower running, and after a few moments you hear the sound of a door slamming closed. Thus ends your impromptu duet, as suddenly as it had begun. Maybe it's for that reason that you still don't feel weird about it. Should you finish the rest of the song? Maybe out of the shower; there's no way it's been under half an hour, now.

The chill of the bathroom leaves you feeling refreshed, slightly wrinkly, and possibly lighter. Maybe from singing and/or literally scorching off body mass.

The shower took 40 minutes.

(Yamaguchi timed you.)

(He also had some choice criticisms to make on your singing career.)

(Shut up, Yamaguchi.)

 


End file.
